Located in north-central Italy, Marche is the country’s sixth smallest region and home to about 1.5 million people. Even its best-known destinations—Urbino, Ascoli Piceno, Pesaro, Ancona, and the vastly wild Monti Sibillini National Park—aren’t household names for most travelers to Italy. 

Yet this underrated region is home to just the types of sights and experiences that people come to Italy for—stunning mountain scenery and bustling beach resorts, hearty regional cuisine and heady wines, important artistic and historical centers, and charming small towns where residents still outnumber tourists.